Thursday, September 29, 2016

My 172nd article was just published in the October Nuts and Volts magazine. The article describes some of the processes we followed to enable the SATINS Program to launch Third Man Records phonograph player into near space.

Monday, September 12, 2016

There’s a very nice article about the first phonograph player launched into near space on the website of Outside Magazine and I encourage everyone to read it. You'll find it at, http://www.outsideonline.com/2110656/record-player-built-for-space

The flight was for Third Man Records and you can see the story they put together at, https://thirdmanrecords.com/news/success-history-is-made-as-third-man-records-plays-the-first-phonographic-record-in-space/

The flight was launched by the SATINS Program for Third Man Records. See the SATINS website for more information at, http://www.satinsprogram.com/

What follows is a short list of the activities required to support this flight.

Design the flight
Get permission for the flight from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Predict the balloon's flight path beginning one week prior to launch
Monitor the weather prior to launch
Pick a launch location based on the predicted flight
Charge and test the flight batteries
Create the load line that connects the parachute to the balloon
Tether the two APRS trackers (main and redundant) to the balloon and parachute
Fill the balloon with the correct amount of lifting gas
Measure and monitor the lift of the balloon during the filling process
Check out the trackers before lift off to ensure they were functioning correctly
Track the balloon's flight path after its launch
Coordinate with the FAA during the flight, as they requested
Chase after the balloon during its flight
Recover the balloon after its landing
Download flight data
Perform an an initial analysis of the flight data

You will be able to read more about this flight in the October issue of Nuts and Volts magazine (http://www.nutsvolts.com/).

If you would like get a promotion in near space, consider contacting the SATINS Program.